Yes, the bubble glaze craze continues!!!
Here’s another one of my students playing with the “glaze bubble” technique again.
Great glazing fun with great results… and so much more fun to watch someone else do it!!!
Blow harder Colin!!!…    Blow. Scoop. Press. Repeat.

Basically it’s just glaze and dishwashing soap mixed up. Then blowing bubbles with a straw. We’ve found it easiest to scoop up the bubbles with your hand and then gently press them onto the pot. Be careful of the runny drips though… we don’t like those!

As the bubbles pop, they leave behind a slightly textured residue of glaze.
Don’t smooth it in… that’s the beautiful bubble pattern you’re looking for!
The more color contrast between your two glaze choices, the more bubble effect you’ll see!

Hopefully I’ll get to see this bowl of Colin’s before he snatches it up to take home.
I’ll try my best to share a photo if I can get one!

More bowls freshly stamped in the studio.
With all of the other talented artists at “Art In The Garden” this year… I’ve got to step up my game and make sure that I have some new work to show off in the garden as well!!!

Tonight I did a little stamping & detailing of my class demo bowls from Tuesday night.
“Not so basic” just got a little more textured!!!

Last night in my Beginning Wheelthrowing class we worked on bowls.
Basic bowls thrown the right way and on purpose… NOT a cylinder gone bad.
So we did a demo of the basic bowl with a nice round interior using my green plastic rib.

Bowl #1 – Plain

After this first bowl, my students went back to their wheels to keep working. As they were making pots, I continued to throw more bowls. After I had made 15 more bowls, we reconvened by my demo wheel. I then showed them some quick ways to “decorate” their basic bowls to make them “not so basic” anymore!!! We talked about playing with your clay, taking a chance, committing to your alterations and making the bowl “yours.” Just because the wheel makes round pots doesn’t mean that they need to stay that way!!!

Bowl #2 – Two Twisted Flutes.

Bowl #3 – Eight Twisted Flutes.

Bowl #4 – Thin Flange bent outwards.

Bowl #5– Wide Flange bent outwards.

Bowl #6 – Flange and Twisted Fluting.

Bowl #7 – Split Rim with Pinches.

Bowl #8 – Split Rim and Fluted In & Out

Bowl #9 – Split Rim in a Lotus Flower Style

Bowl #10 – Plain with a Flower Pressed in the bottom with a simple dragonscale tool.

Then we started working more with colored slip. For the demo I used thick white slip and thin blue mazzerine. Now looking at the photos, I probably should have used a darker slip to show more contrast to the lightness of the B-Clay. Oh well… next time!!

Bowl #11 – White Slip Spiral using the rounded end of my wooden knife.

Bowl #12 – White Slip Squiggles with my finger tip.

Bowl #13 – White Slip Banding & Squiggles

Bowl #14 – Blended Gradation Ombre with Chattering Texture

Bowl #15 – Wide Flange with some Mazzerine Squiggles.

Bowl #16 – Mazzerine Slip with a couple Newspaper Letter Stencils.

So now they are all in my studio under wraps. Covered with plastic so they can dry a bit slowly. I’m hoping that maybe tomorrow night they will be ready for some stamping, detailing & accenting. If so… most like more photos will follow!

Swing by Hinsdale this weekend for the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival.
I’ll be there in Booth #100 with plenty of handmade, decorative & functional pottery. Mostly stamped & soda-fired, but also some of these new, bright pops of color!!! We’re there from 10:00am-5:00pm both days. Hope to see you there.

Need a set of handmade, fluted bowls?!
C’mon out to the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival this weekend… grab ’em before they’re gone!!!

Glazed & loaded another kiln today.
This time, a cone 6 firing for a quick pop of color.
Just in time for the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival next weekend.

Tonight I washed the dust off of some old bisque pots.
They’ve been on my studio shelf a little bit too long… and needed some good dusting.
So I literally hosed them down at the sink. Now they’re drying overnight so I can glaze them this weekend. Some new pots getting ready for the Hinsdale Art Fair in two weeks!!!

“The Quite White Collection” made its big debut this weekend…
a surprising & enjoyable departure from my soda-fired, colored work.
One bowl found the perfect companion while on my booth shelf.

My kiln was a bit too hot to unload when I got to the studio last night.
Then I got “distracted” trying to make some new terra cotta planters for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg. Sixteen planters later… and it was now much later than I had intended. It was a VERY late night of unloading, packing, shelf scraping, kiln washing and cleaning… too late for sharing photos!!! But there will be more… trust me.